vomiting and sezures

I have a 4 year old daughter with a history of seizures (seizure

free for over a year) and a history of reflux (not a problem for over 2

years.) In April she had an episode of repeated vomiting.

Then, it happened again in June. Then, July 10th it started. We have

not had more than 24 hours vomit free since July 10th. She has also

had diarrhoea part of that time. She has an immuno compromised sister

who has been totally healthy through this. That virtually eliminates

the possibility that it is contagious.

My children are already gluten free. However, even the gluten free

foods are making my child sick now. The only things she can keep

down are rice crackers and chicken with rice soup. She wakes up vomiting

in the middle of the night and we are worried she is going to choke.

We have done blood work to check for food allergies and are waiting

on those results. We are going to do an x-ray just to make sure

there isn't something there. We are going to try Pepcid to ensure it's not

reflux related. Since this started she has also started seizing

again. They aren't sure which condition is causing the other, so

they are talking about a brain MRI as well.

Do you have any other suggestions of things that we can check for?

We will be doing more blood work in a few days so I want to include

anything we can so we don't have to do it again. She is a petite

child to begin with and she's already lost some weight. In our

family we often deal with "rare" things. So, even if it is rare I still

want to hear about it.

Thank you.

Chelsea

Dear Chelsea,

How very distressing this must be for you.

The combination of seizures plus vomiting would make me very keen indeed to have an MRI of her head.

Blood tests for food allergies are helpful but not conclusive and you may find that your doctor wants to withdraw a food for 3 weeks and the challenge her with it again after the 3 weeks has been completed.